Home automation

[Hugh Jahrmes]

I've been seeing some pretty neat stuff around online lately. There are quite a few options, different protocols used etc.

Has anyone here set up a fairly complex system in their home? If so what do you use and do you wish you'd went a different route?

I've heard that with google purchasing nest and working on android@home it may be worth taking a wait and see approach.

I will be taking paternity leave in September and will just be hanging around the house with the family and doing some education upgrades. Would be the perfect time to do something cool and I'll have nothing but time.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Hugh Jahrmes

I've been seeing some pretty neat stuff around online lately. There are quite a few options, different protocols used etc.

Has anyone here set up a fairly complex system in their home? If so what do you use and do you wish you'd went a different route?

I've heard that with google purchasing nest and working on android@home it may be worth taking a wait and see approach.

I will be taking paternity leave in September and will just be hanging around the house with the family and doing some education upgrades. Would be the perfect time to do something cool and I'll have nothing but time.

[Hugh Jahrmes]

Lmao.. yeah I maaaaay have an overly optimistic idea of how things will turn out.

Seriously though, noone here is into that kind of stuff? Or maybe those who are don't want the rest of us having sweet robot homes too?

[bc-chris]

my wife and i enjoy walking thru show homes when we don't have anything better to do - it's an easy way to get ideas and see what's currently happening with new houses.

it was probably 2 summers ago we walked thru this one house that had a ton of 'automation' (for lack of a better word)

there was a panel on each level of the house that could control a TON of stuff and this system was also linked up with tablets/phones. the guy showing the house showed us all the cool stuff it could do.... turn on/off lights, fire places, tv's, music, and the list went on and on. it was pretty sweet. so i asked him what the system cost..... $25,000!!

i think i'd be more than happy to get up off my butt and turn on a couple lights to save $25,000!

[Hugh Jahrmes]

Home automation is definitely in its infancy, the switches etc are coming down in price big time.

I'm looking for advice on what people are using for hubs and which protocol(s) people have used and think will stick around.


I saw an article on mesh Bluetooth on reddit earlier that will change the game for sure.

I'm just a geek at heart and like the idea of motion sensor lights , different settings for rooms for entertaining, movies etc.

[Russic]

I'm wondering how a system like Phillips's Hue might progress. It's one of those things that looks way too stupid and expensive, but people who have them swear by them. I wonder if Google might go in this direction now that they've purchased Nest. Lights you can control with your devices are cool, but there's room to expand there. Anybody with kids who leave the damn lights on all the time when they leave the room has probably wondered why our lights don't turn themselves off yet.

[Brannigans Law]

I have a friend who does this for a living and does a pretty amazing job. If you like I can provide his contact information and he can talk you thru some of what he does and give you an estimate?

[Hugh Jahrmes]

That'd be great. I'm way up in Blackfalds though

[Flames89]

With the latest developments in this space (including Google's acquisition of Nest) and in "the internet of things", I would recommend trying to be patient and waiting on this. There are millions to billions of dollars being spent on R&D and acquisitions in this area and I expect some pretty sweet developments over the near term.

[spetch]

I got Control 4 in our home as it was being built and I absolutely love it. The flexibility of everything is wonderful as I have been able to add pieces to the system over time to help lessen the blow of the cost.

Not sure on other automation systems, but with a a quick text to my installer he can add some neat programing features (eg. Our light switch by the bed can be double hit and it will slowly turn on a path to the babies room when my wife needed to get up for a feeding or pressing pause while watching a Blu-ray with turn the lights slightly on).

Audio Integrations (formerly Audio Innovations) was the company out of Red Deer that I dealt with.

[Bill Bumface]

Semi-related, but I retrofitted my garage opener with a LiftMaster MyQ panel, and it is awesome.

I have an alley facing garage that I was always paranoid I forgot to close and would come home one day and find all my tools and hockey equipment gone.

Now I can see on my phone if it is open or closed and for how long. I can also set it to auto-close after X minutes of being open.

Someone is dropping something off for me and I'm not home? I can open the door for them with my phone from anywhere.

And it was cheap. $80 to have all of that.

Poor man's home automation spiel over.

[Table 5]

I've been looking to wade into the home automation waters for a while now, although it still seems like we're in it's relatively infancy, so I started off rather light. Today, I installed a Belkin WeMo automated light-switch and a couple of power outlet controls (that allow you to control table lamps/radios etc.

http://www.belkin.com/us/Products/ho...me-automation/

Install was a touch buggy in terms of updating the firmware (which you should do to ensure you have the latest security), but otherwise iteems to be working fairly well so far...it should be a nice way to control the house lights if we're away, as it has some handy automated/random timing features.

It also has the great side effect of being to blow your 2 year olds mind when daddy can play magician and turn the lights on with the power of his mind.

[MickMcGeough]

I've been watching what Quirky & GE are doing with Wink pretty closely.

If you don't know Quirky - they're basically crowdsourcing inventions. They had so many people submitting home automation inventions that they created a protocol by which they all connect (with each other and with non-Wink products like Nest), and they've now got more home automation products than anybody else.

http://www.wink.com/products/

[EldrickOnIce]

The Ubi looks interesting. A Canadian startup
Control by voice many devices and services, e.g. Nest, IFTTT, and SmartThings.http://www.theubi.com